Art and Design

“Write On” Campaign

ConceptThe question I posed to myself was how to encourage kids to write more with pencil and paper. Data confirms the benefits of this modality in the learning centers of young brains. I showed school-aged kids having fun with writing tools including pencils, pens, brushes, markers, etc. The umbrella theme, Write On, is suggestive of 1960’s student empowerment and, of course, literally challenges kids to write. I photographed some of my nieces and nephews for the project. All images are my own except where noted. Some images used in the long portrait montage are copyright of others.

AudienceThe goal is to reach kids, teachers, administrators and parents of school-aged children to encourage handwriting.

The Traveling Window

ConceptI etched the quote by Henry David Thoreau onto a sheet of door glass and brought it to various locations in southeast Michigan. The idea is to observe comments and reactions of viewers through the window onto the locations. The spirit of the Word Artists flows through the occasion that the window presents to those willing to contemplate and reflect.

AudienceThe mobile nature of the Traveling Window provides endless opportunity for anyone to think about and articulate the world around them. The window can be held by volunteers or supported on-location by a framework.

Serious Play

ConceptI regularly carve out time and space for playtime. Found objects, personal photographs, scans, xerox copies, and bits and pieces from family archives all find their way into my explorations.

Low Impact Design

ConceptLow Impact Design (LID) and Green Infrastructure are catching on in many parts of the US, but have been a way of life in some European countries for decades. In my hometown, I have found that grassroots activism is potent and effective. Where social media can access people's attention quickly, face-to-face word of mouth conversation also has its advantages, making immediate intimate connections. A website can be informative, but engaging people on the street with an old-fashioned broadside and t-shirted hawker is personal and emotional. So, I designed a broadside and posters for business posting and streetside reading including illustrations and organic masks.

AudienceI focused on residents and business owners, giving them a colorful, informative call-to-action for LID and green infrastructure.

Typographic Material

ConceptAllowing material to influence and even direct the meaning of language guided this exploration of a Keith Haring quote: “I think you have to control the materials to an extent, but it’s important to let the materials have a kind of power for themselves; like the natural power of gravity.” Another influence were the directions typed by the Conceptual Artist Sol LeWitt instructing others to recreate his work. I got volunteers together one windy afternoon to play with a 60-foot paper banner printed with the quote. They walked it across a wooded park, a college campus, city streets, and then up onto a rooftop university patio. Finally, as evening came, they lit the banner with flashlights and phones.

AudienceThe volunteers and onlookers as the banner was paraded through the out-of-doors.

A Mobile Experience

ConceptWhile the existing mobile app had usable and informative elements, it was nevertheless difficult to navigate and inelegant. My goal was to improve on the original. To accomplish this I first communicated with gardeners to find what improvements and benefits they would find useful, and I looked at other gardening apps. Then I applied iOS Human Interface Guidelines and Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics to help me design a new interface and aesthetic. Finally, I tested user interaction and created an iPad prototype with the on-line program InVision.

AudiencePrimarily, outdoor gardeners who are familiar with digital tablets.

The Senses in Design

ConceptImmersed as I am with students in the classroom, the relevance and potencial benefits of the senses to learning and making fascinates me. Short videos (Design for the Haptic Senses, and In Defense of the Senses) helped document my research, findings and conclusions regarding the senses in design.

AudienceMy focus is on educators and college administrators—those in position to explore and implement a curriculum of sensory learning—as well as students of design.

Urban Camouflage

ConceptDetroit has lost half of its population since 1960. Fully 25% of residential properties are now without a house. To give a sense of how large Detroit is in area consider that San Francisco, Boston and Manhattan could fit within its 139 square mile land area and still have space left over. Since 1950 the percentage of Black residents has increased from 16% to about 80%. It has become a massive, sparsely populated urban metropolis in which most residents who could move to better properties have done so. The geography of desire therefore intrigues me. The question of what is it like to live in the poorer Detroit neighborhoods became a major focus of my walks. Residents in these places move about with a kind of gracious surrender dressed in plain dark colored clothing very deliberately making life work with the resources they find.

Most everything in the neighborhoods I explored are darkly mottled. The homes for instance are decaying if they are not burned-out or scavenged shells. The cars are usually dark with the occasional red, chrome-wheeled cruiser along major thoroughfares. Every time I enter those landscapes I go through a process of acclimation. My intentions are to become part of the landscape but I know I am an outsider. I wonder about identity. Clothing in these places is functional and of an ilk. If I dressed in this way I would become invisible or at least not an anomaly... like a kind of camouflage. I also have wondered what an immersive, unobtrusive means of embodiment might be. "A fly on the wall" perhaps. So I gathered all of my photos together and chose one to become my identity, my camouflage.

Occasionally, unexpectedly I walked by a home that appeared as an oasis amid the debris that in some neighborhoods covered every horizontal surface. I never saw the caretakers of those homes but their maintenance was clearly evident: neatly trimmed lawns and flower gardens, lush amid the garbage and dilapidation; painted shutters; Catholic iconography enshrined by miniature brick walls; and always light from the windows rather than the dark. How might this alter my sense of identity? My own face is identity, so I think flowers make a unique mask.

Book Design

ConceptThe idea to write and illustrate a children’s book for adults came out of my reverence for On Leisure by Robert Osborn. In Strange Pilots the hero of the story questions the meaning of a life lived well. During the course of the story-telling he arrives at an answer, but not one he would have expected. Many found objects were integrated in ways that keep the fantasy aspect grounded in everyday experience.

AudienceCollege students, particularly those fond of art and philosophy.

Mother & Child

ConceptPromoting a healthy pregnancy benefits everyone: the mother is better able to cope with the stresses on her body, the baby gets good nutrition which leads to better health within the womb as well as throughout life, and society gains the lifetime contributions of the healthy mother and child. Fruit is a key ingredient in a healthy pregnancy so I focused on fruit metaphor and a simple Luba Lukova inspired flat graphic (screen print) style.

The Balance of Water

ConceptAs a planning commissioner I regularly encouraged city council and administration to initiate and implement water management ordinance language and municipal programs protecting rainwater and general water usage. Change occurs locally when residents actively petition elected officials face-to-face. An average of one hundred gallons of water are used daily per person in the US. Water in poor and developing nations is often transported by women who balance containers on their heads. Inspired by these women, I designed an occasion for residents to bring water to the door of City Hall to request attention to water management.

I imagine a dozen or so college students forming a river of water spirits which will wind its way to the Clawson City Hall.

Each student will wear a blue shirt screen printed with the Balance of Water symbol. The dozen or so blue shirts may be of the Salvation Army variety so that the variation in blues will be fairly wide. The intention being that the blues will reflect the variation found in an actual river. The students will balance water containers on top of their heads. This will support the actual carrying of water by third world women as well as the symbolic balance central to the overall water issue.

The human river may be repeated anywhere a group of like-minded water supporters gathers to petition their municipal leaders. I’m working on a printed guide to the Balance of Water which will serve to inform, entertain and encourage readers to learn more about how they can manage, conserve, protect and enjoy water. Anyone can be a Water Spirit!

Indigenous Language

ConceptThe Anishinabi word “Bimaadiziwin” translates as “Life and all its meaning.” I have lived in Michigan my entire life, and since grade school I have wondered what happened to those who lived here before Europeans arrived. Television and text books did little to inform me beyond stereotypes and the so-called inevitability of European dominance. As I explored the historical and current lives of indigenous peoples it became apparent that the perpetuation of language is central to identity. I eventually arrived at the concept of wrapping ourselves in language as a kind of clothing to visualize language.

AudienceThe audience initially was visitors to the Zibiwing Center in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, who may purchase locally made articles of clothing—the profits of which would support native language learning.

Belle Isle Conservancy

ConceptBelle Isle is a gem in the Straits of Detroit, an island sanctuary which is still in need of some promoting even as it has recently become the latest Michigan State Park. In the middle of an urban metropolis, Belle Isle is a nature escape, making it feel as if a world away. The posters consider the environment from many perspectives—the vertical versions acknowledge the big sky and its denizens.

AudienceFamilies, urban explorers and historians, nature lovers, and anyone in need of fresh air and green space.

Subway Map and ID

ConceptRedesigning an existing subway map and logotype for Berlin, Germany was very time-consuming... and fun. Berlin’s underground system is one of the world’s most complex, integrating more than twenty lines, each of which must be clearly identified and described in order to accommodate a variety of users. The common technique for identifying individual lines is through a color scheme. However, with the large number of Berlin lines, colors inevitably tend to become confusingly similar, especially to users with color blindness. One of the issues I focused on was integrating line quality to aid deafferentation in the service of clarity and ease-of-use. I also designed a series of pictograms which highlight some of the major points of interest in Berlin. And finally, I began designing a mobile app of the map and POI.

AudienceRegular and tourist riders of the Berlin U and S Bahn subway system.

Sensory Ethnography

ConceptMy exploration of physiological projection is multi- or cross-sensory. How can I facilitate empathy and embodied experience between people within areas of Detroit, and between it and other locales? I am looking for interactions of truth which follow from my inquiries into embodied experience. The best way to understand and empathise with others is to look with them rather than at them. The cliché “to walk in someone else’s shoes” is actually at the heart of my exploration. But what if the individuals are not within the personal space of each other? The walkers create their own art based on their physiological responses to the environment. Through remote, real-time projections others may become more than voyeurs; they will experience others through a dance of art and science. When the walker’s galvanic skin conductance changes, those changes will be translated into visual (and later perhaps multi-sensory) presentations. This is the part I’m trying to learn now—what will it look like and how will I translate the data. Even here, others can tell me what their emotions and experiences might look like graphically. A rise and fall of intensity, a quickening of pulse and pace, legato and staccato rhythms, contrast in size and shape and translucence. I began documenting my own experiences as I walked through the Petosky-Otsego Detroit neighborhood. Design students may begin to empathize with others by becoming connected to the environments in which others live and work; by experiencing the spaces, senses, and temporalities of realities remote from their own. By doing so, the disparate realities become one.

A kind of sensory ethnography guides the work which integrates analog (walking volunteers and the environment), and digital (Basis fitness tracker, and GoPro) to document people’s explorations of Detroit. To design for a particular location (Detroit) there should be a personal and embodied understanding of the (indigenous) people and their environment. A way to explore such understanding is to follow three groups of people as they walk through various locations (individually and in pairs). Group 1) local residents; Group 2) people from a suburban locale; and, Group 3) residents from locales similar to the particular Detroit locales (map at right). Comparing the experiences of the groups with each other may inform design practice with Detroit residents. Movement, smell, sight, sound, taste, and touch each have a part to play. My findings will be presented in web/mobile applications, in video and in print. I have been conversing with Christian Nold whose Emotional Cartography is part of my written thesis. He has been very supportive. Where Nold’s previous work focused on individual perspectives, mine would explore relationships between people... Looking with each other.

AudienceWalkers generating galvanic skin response, and others engaging the projections created by the walker's physiological engagement with their environments.

Flag

ConceptThe US flag is impregnated with meaning, often very personal meaning. We pledge allegiance to it, we wrap ourselves in it, young and old, gay and straight, rich and poor, healthy and diseased, immigrant and native-born acknowledge the flag’s power. One definition of flag is, “become tired, weaker, or less dynamic.” I aim to counter this. Diversity! Flags are dynamic and imbed multiple meanings in viewers. Flag was my entry in ArtPrize 2016 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Flag is a series exploring diversity and identity in America.

AudiencePerhaps visitors to the ArtPrize venue space embedded their own meanings in these alternate US flags. Especially potent during an energized social/political year, this is an exploration of American iconography. There is history in the US flag. This series explores its contemporary nature as well as it’s future.

BackgroundDuring walks through Detroit I noticed US flags were attached to foreclosed homes, identified sites of murder, and drew attention to areas of Detroit which residents feel have been forgotten by city administration. The flag remains a potent symbol even (perhaps especially) in contrast to the abundant graffiti. The graffiti made me think about the meaning of repeated symbols throughout the neighborhoods. I became aware of their gang affiliation. Structures of all kinds are marked as territory warning outsiders that a group believed they own an area. I was an outsider who had no idea what the particular symbols meant. A niece's husband who had been a Detroit cop for twelve years warned me not to walk in certain areas alone especially after dark, and to absolutely not mark on or alter any of the graffiti. The gang tags showed as flags in the neighborhood. The US flag somehow has lost much of it patriotic meaning and has been replaced by paint.

Still, there was potency in the US flags that were displayed and I wondered if new life could be given to the 200 year old banner. I decided to remove the color, not in disrespect or in an act of draining some power but instead to present the flag as a source of potential. From a distance the White Flag appears just white. With a second (closer) look detail is revealed until finally the underlying design is revealed.

From Detroit to Lansing the White Flag represents the surrender of many to fear, greed and misinformation, on the one hand. And on the other it is a reminder to resist surrender. With the colors stripped away we are left with the essence of the symbol: the original 13 colonies and the stars representing each State. It seems to be a blank canvas ready to be imprinted upon. Its power comes from being recognizable and yet changed so significantly. It's a ‘Freak Flag’.

Happiness

ConceptThe main goal of data visualization is its ability to visualize data, communicating information clearly and effectively. Data visualization does not need to look boring to be functional, or extremely sophisticated to look beautiful. To convey ideas effectively, both aesthetic form and functionality need to go hand in hand, providing insights into a rather sparse and complex data set by communicating its key aspects in a more intuitive way.

Data CollectionSelect a topic. Research initial data and add more layers of information by building up on the research. Collect information from newspapers, books, magazines, or the Internet. Sort the data to validate your argument or topic.

Infographics PosterMake concepts for visual representations of information or data collected. The final poster should present the topic at several levels of perception: A general image composition that attracts interest through relevant form and use of graphic primitives; a second level in which specific information is provided.